About POWI

The Program On Water Issues (POWI) creates opportunities for members of the private, public, academic, and not-for-profit sectors to join in collaborative research, dialogue, and education.

The Munk School of Global Affairs

The Program is dedicated to giving voice to those who would bring transparency and breadth of knowledge to the understanding and protection of Canada’s valuable water resources. Since 2001, The Program On Water Issues has provided the public with analysis, information, and opinion on a range of important and emerging water issues.

Its location within the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto provides access to rich analytic resources, state-of-the-art information technology, and international expertise.

In the fall of 2014, Adèle Hurley, Director of the Program on Water Issues at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, was elected by the Royal Society of Canada as a Specially Elected Fellow. Election to the academies of the Royal Society of Canada is the highest honour a scholar can achieve in the Arts, Humanities and Sciences.

In December of 2014, Ms. Hurley was also appointed a member of the Order of Canada, “for her commitment to exposing how bottled water hurts the environment, the conservation and the protection of Canada’s natural resources”.

Western Canada’s Freshwater in a Changing Climate – Presentation

Dr. David Schindler, Killam Memorial Chair and Professor Emeritus of Ecology at the University of Alberta, delivered a presentation on Western Canada’s Freshwater in a Changing Climate, as a part of the recent symposium “In Deep: A Conversation About Water”, October 3, 2015 in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

The Water Report

The November 15, 2014 issue of the Water Report – a monthly newsletter for water lawyers, engineers, regulatory agencies, tribes, municipalities and environmental issues interested in water issues in the Western United States – provides a condensed version of POWI’s Protocols for Adaptive Water Governance: the Future of the Columbia River Treaty by Nigel Bankes and Barbara Cosens at pages 23 to 25.

This recent report from a coalition of investment advisory firms and advocacy organizations examines whether companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing report their practices and progress in reducing risks from fracking operations.

A handful of the 30 largest oil and gas companies have improved their reporting, but most companies continue to receive failing scores, preventing investors from accurately assessing how companies are managing the key risks of fracking including water consumption and water quality.